Phosphorus
A chemical element with the symbol P. Phosphorus is essential for all living organism to grow. We get our phosphorus from the food we eat. Plants in turn, extract P from the soil. 

As fertilizer!
Around the ’60 we started using industrial fertilizers to increase food production. Today’s agriculture still depends on these extra nutrients. P used in industrial fertilizer originates from phosphate rock. This resource is not only depleting, it can only be found in a few places around the world, with the Western Sahara taking the lead by owning over 70% of the words remaining Phosphate Rock. [USGS 2015].

As Phosphate rock is depleting, closing the P-Cycle is good for 2 things:
1 To guarantee food security in the future, P is non-renewable and depleting.
2 To prevent geopolitical tensions. You do not want the entire population depending on only a few places that hold reserves.   

By closing the P-cycle!
Luckily P does not break, nor do we store it in our bodies. After dinner we Pee most of it out. Currently most of these nutrients end up in a landfill and open waters through conventional sanitation. Not only is it almost impossible to recover P there. These ‘dumped’ nutrients unbalance ecosystems with all its consequences.
The system in the P-Bank first separates Pee from the main stream. This separation process happens directly in the toilet safe! by our sponsor Laufen. In this toilet safe! the Pee automatically flows into a second outlet. Besides the toilets, the P-Bank also receives donations via the waterless urinal. This urinal is not flushed with water. A simple membrane seal prevents odours.
Secondly the P will be recovered from the collected Pee in the recovery Lab of the P-BANK. Here different processes can be used. So far we have recovered nutrients using two, a Stripping Process and an Evaporation process. These processes are low-tech and only require very common and accessible materials.
There also exists other sustainable systems and sanitation products that enable nutrient recovery. For efficient recovery it is important that sanitation systems are tailored per case to the use, location and local needs. Often this results in a more decentralized system then the conventional one. 

 For more information about the system in the P-Bank download our documentations or contact us.  

Actually no. The P-BANK also recovers other valuable nutrients from Pee, for fertilizer products. Like Nitrogen (N) and Potassium (K).  

Only 1% of domestic wastewaters is urine. But more than 50% of the P found in wastewaters comes from urine. Besides nutrients other substances leave the body through Pee, like harmful hormones and drug residue, which when flushed in a conventional sewage system, often still end up in landfill or even natural waters.  

Contact us to see if the P-Bank can come to your event or if we can cooperate in another way.